2^1 



irst 
er Hill 



n 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

j ©lap... Qopjjrijlit !f n.. 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



BY A. J. GEORGE, A.M. 



WORDSWORTH'S PRELUDE. With Notes. 
SELECTIONS FROM WORDSWORTH. With Notes. 
WORDSWORTH'S PREFACES AND ESSAYS ON POETRY. With 

Notes. 
COLERIDGE'S CRITICAL ESSAYS. (From Biographia Literaria.) 

With Notes. 
BURKE'S SPEECHES ON THE AMERICAN WAR, AND LETTER 

TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL. With Notes. 
BURKE'S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. With 

Notes. 
SELECT SPEECHES OF DANIEL WEBSTER. With Notes. 
THE BUNKER HILL ORATION. With Notes. 
SYLLABUS OF ENGLISH HISTORY AND LITERATURE. 

In Preparation. 

Wordsworth's Excursion and White Doe of Rylstone. 

Select Poems of Coleridge. 

Select Poems of Burns. 

The History and Literature of Scotland: 

I. The Highlands. II. The Border. 



lbeatb'0 lEnglisb Classics 



WEBSTER'S 



FIRST BUNKER HILL ORATION 



825 



WITH 

PREFACE, INTRODUCTION, AND NOTES 

BY 

A. J. GEORGE, A.M. 

Instructor in Rhetoric and English Literature in 
Newton, Mass., High School 




" The front of Jove himself; 
An eye like Mars to threaten and command ; 

A combination and a form indeed, ^ "•' '-^ ■"" / ^C. 

Where every god did seem to set his seal, 
To give the world assurance of a man." 



3^6^^ 



BOSTON, U.S.A. 
D. C. HEATH & CO., PUBLISHERS 

1895 



— N. 






COFVRIGHT, 1895, 

By a. J. GEORGE. 



Typography by J S. Gushing & Co , Boston, U.S.A. 
Prbsswork by C. H. Heintzemann, Boston, U.S.A. 



TO 
MY FRIEND AND ASSOCIATE 

EDWARD J. GOODWIN 



• Blest Statesman He, whose Mind's unselfish will 
Leaves him at ease among grand thoughts : whose eye 
Sees that, apart from magnanimity, 
Wisdom exists not; nor the humbler skill 
Of Prudence, disentangling good and ill 
With patient care. What tho' assaults run high, 
They daunt not him who holds his ministry. 
Resolute, at all hazards, to fulfil 
Its duties; prompt to move, but firm to wait; 
Knowing, things rashly sought are rarely found; 
That, for the functions of an ancient State — 
Strong by her charters, free because imbound, 
Servant of Providence, not slave of Fate — 
Perilous is sweeping change, all chance unsound." 
vi 



PREFACE. 



When we study the history of those nations which have given 
to the world models of art in literature, we are surprised often 
at the meagreness of the Hterature of oratory in these nations. 
Numerous as are the occasions when great audiences have been 
moved to thought and action by the words of a leader, very 
few are the instances where these words have been so treasured 
by time that they hold a place among the great classics ; 
whereas the literature of poetry in the same nations is abun- 
dant in evidence of immortality. This apparent discrimination 
in favor of the poet is evidently due to the fact that the occa- 
sional oratory, effective as it may have been at the time, did 
not approach near enough to great poetry to possess the ele- 
ment which the Germans call unendlichkeit, infinitude, or uni- 
versahty; it did not rise out of the limitations of time and 
place into the sphere of great truths where all art must Hve 
and move and have its being. 

It is interesting and profitable to compare the poetry of 
oratory with the oratory of poetry. Such a study reveals the 
kinship of poet and orator, that in the infancy of Hterary art 
the two are one in virtue of the shaping and transforming 
power of imagination, — " the vision and the faculty divine " — 
which protests against the unreality of a fife in which the senses 
are supreme. 



viii PREFACE. 

In that distant past, when our Saxon forefathers — story- 
loving, story-teUing people — 

" Went about their gravest deeds 
Like noble boys at play," 

poetry, philosophy, and oratory were born from a common 
parent ; they have now wandered so far from their old home 
that they hardly recognize it ; nor do they treat each other as 
children of one household. The Gleeman stood forth in the 
assembly of the tribe on the forest hill-tops — or in the mead- 
hall hung with glittering armor, shield, spear, and coat of mail — 
and tuned his harp and voice to the wild passion of victory, or 
to the pathetic wail of defeat ; or with eager joy sang the praise 
of some hero, strong in body and great in soul, and wove a tale 
that inspired his listeners to grasp their armor with a determi- 
nation to do and to be, as he uttered that note of freedom, when 

" Woe, woe to tyrants ! from his lyre 
Broke threateningly in sparkles dire 
Of fierce, vindictive song." 

In these modest, sincere, artless, and impassioned songs we 
have the secret of the poet, the philosopher, and the orator ; 
the secret which baffles analysis and defies definition. These 
ballads — sung by men whose only motive for singing was to 
reveal bravery and nobihty, sung of men whose interest in fife 
was loyalty and trueheartedness — still remain models of 

"Truth-breathed music, soul-like lays; 
Not of vain-glory born, nor love of praise, 
But welling purely from profound heart-springs, 
That lie deep down amid the life of things. 
And singing on, heedless though mortal ear 
Should never their lone murmur hear," 



PREFACE. IX 

By stimulating curiosity, or a desire to know; obedience, or 
a desire to do; and admiration, or a desire to become; these 
unknown singers open wide the doors which lead to the king- 
dom of life and art. They seem to anticipate Browning's Abt 
Vogler who sang : 

" Sorrow is hard to bear, and doubt is slow to clear ; 

Each sufferer says his say, his scheme of the weal and the woe; 
But God has a few of us whom he whispers in the ear; 
The rest may reason, and welcome : 'tis we musicians know." 

When life and art become " sicklied o'er with the pale cast of 
thought " ; when the vigor and spontaneity of youth are lost in 
an over-refined civilization, fortunate are we if we listen to the 
prophets who cry, 

"Art has trum, take refuge there," 

and seeking these well-springs of health and sweetness, there 
find comfort and peace, 

*' For there is shed 
On spirits that have long been dead, 
Spirits dried up and closely furl'd, 
The freshness of the early world." 

Although we know how impartial time is in enforcing the rule 
that nothing but the truly excellent, nothing but that which 
has in it the universal, and is a joy to the maker and the user, 
can be admitted to the sacred temple presided over by the god- 
dess of beauty ; yet we believe that American literature, in the 
sphere of poetry and oratory, has already received the crown of 
the beautiful, the true, and the good. In witness of this, look 
into Westminster Abbey, where Longfellow and Lowell find fit 
society, and into Harvard's Memorial Hall where Webster is 
given a place as one of the seven great orators of the world. 



X PREFACE. 

The order of development of literary art upon American soil 
was first oratory, — of the pulpit and the forum, — and then 
poetry, — of nature and of man. The early days of our 
history were such as tried men's souls. Strenuous activity 
in church and state demanded clear vision and persuasive 
utterance. The cradle of the infant state was made of the 
toughest fibre from hearts of oak. The oratory born out of 
such a condition of affairs is stamped with the image and super- 
scription of America ; it is the most typically national of any of 
our achievements in the sphere of art. Our poetry — the 
growth of a period when the pioneer constructive work had been 
completed ; when the questions of government and religion were 
settled — was more cosmopolitan, and hence less peculiarly 
American. The sweetest singer, and perhaps the greatest 
artist, of our band of poets is read and loved not less in 
England than in America. 

While the occasional oratory of the Revolution and of the 
RebelHon reached high-water mark, of no American orator, 
except Daniel Webster, can it be said that — before a jury, in 
the Supreme Court of the United States, on great historical 
occasions, and in the Senate of the United States — his every 
utterance was classic in form and national in spirit. 

The reason for this is not in those elements of chance, the 
times, the nature of the subjects, the condition of the national 
mind ; these have always been, but have not always been re- 
vealed to later generations, because the only creative force in 
the world — a great personality — was not present to seize the 
permanent and the true in them, and give it form. 

The only cause in the sphere of Webster's art, the only 
cmise in the world of art, is personality; to reach this is to 
reach the centre and source of all things in Nature and human 



PREFACE. XI 

life. It is through great men that God's revelations reach us. 
Carlyle has said, that the history of the world is the biography 
of great men, and that admiration for a great personality is the 
most vivifying influence in the life of a man. Emerson voices 
the same sentiment where he tells us to beware when God 
sends a great soul upon the planet, for then all things are in 
danger. 

The unity of literary art has its source in God, and the unity 
in the work of any great artist is in his own personality. To 
come into vital relations with the artist through the medium 
of his works ; to become his friend to whom he may reveal 
the secrets of his mind and heart ; to become quickened by 
his spirit, and receptive to his ideals, as the waters are to the 
sky's influence, — this is to gain the central motive of a great 
hfe, and is the end of all true literary interpretation. Where 
this is done, order reigns where before all seemed chaotic, and 
one feels a thrill of emotion akin to that which the author had 
in creating the work. % 

" If there did not something else go to the making of litera- 
ture," says John Burroughs, " besides mere Hterary parts, how 
long ago the old bards and BibUcal writers would have been 
superseded by the learned and gentlemanly versifiers of later 
times. . . . Only those books are for the making of men into 
which a man has gone in the making." 

Lowell, who was a most stimulating and successful teacher 
of the great literatures, was wont to praise Johnson for saying 
that "whatever withdraws us from the power of our senses; 
whatever makes the past, the distant, or the future, predomi- 
nate over the present, advances us in the dignity of thinking 
beings." 

The growth of Webster's mind and art from the first college 



xii PREFACE. 

exercise to those great speeches in the Senate of the United 
States, is the gradual unfolding of that mysterious something 
which defies analysis, but which is everywhere present and to 
which we give the name of genius. 

The Bunker Hill oration represents one stadium in the course 
of this movement ; it is therefore a history and a prophecy ; it 
reveals what has been and gives glimpses of heights that are 
higher. In the national spirit, the quality of imagination, the 
depth of passion, the breadth of sympathy, the steady and 
strong undercurrent of the religious feehng, — in these we have 
revealed the essential elements of AVebster's mind and art. In 
this continual transpiration, of character, one sees the style 
Websterian, and when this has been revealed, it will be 
no hardship to follow the author through the minute details 
in the handling of words, sentences, and paragraphs, and 
the processes of description, narrative, exposition, and persua- 
sion, by which the qualities of clearness, force, and beauty are 
attained. 

It has been said that the proper object of education is the 
training of the powers of observation, judgment, expression, 
memory, and the creation of high ideals of life. 

Will the study of literature be as effective in gaining the 
former of these ends as in furnishing means for the latter? 
Literature is indeed a fine art and its end is inspiration, not 
information : its law is enjoyment as a condition for right un- 
derstanding. Every form of art is the embodiment of method, 
and to gain the principles governing that method is as labo- 
rious and painstaking a process — and the same in kind — 
as that required to comprehend the laws of mechanics or 
geology. 

The subject, whether it be a lyric, an epic, or a drama, an 



PREFACE. xiii 

essay, an oration, or a novel, is the territory to be studied. The 
method is observation and induction. The teacher is the guide 
whose duty it is to select the ground to be visited, and to make 
the approach to it in such a way that the pupil may do his own 
seeing, and may thus develop the powers of observation ; that 
he may determine the difference between the tilting of the 
various strata, the constitution of soil, and the rock formation, 
and thus compare ^.nd Judge ; that he may record his observa- 
tions, formulate and state his conclusions, and thus develop 
clear expression ; that he may retain impressions and conclu- 
sions, and thus strengthen metnory. Thus we see that the 
manner of gaining facts in the examination of a work of art is 
essentially the same as that in the examination of a section of 
the country for the facts of its formation, etc. Why, then, 
should not the one exercise be as useful as the other as an 
educational process? 

Hence, while maintaining that the end of literary study should 
be access of power through insight into and assimilation of- the 
elements of truth and beauty, we insist, none the less, that if 
properly ordered, the study will promote strength and discipline 
of mind. 

The new requirements in EngHsh for College Entrance Ex- 
aminations will do much to raise the character of English 
teaching in secondary schools, and will make the editing of 
English classics something other than the mechanical work it 
has often seemed to be. A masterpiece of literary art must be 
presented in such a manner that its study will lead naturally 
and necessarily to the study of other works of the same author, 
and to the works of other authors in the same literary period. 
Such study will lead to an appreciation not only of a great 
artist but also of the national spirit which developed that art 



xiv , PREFA CE. 

and which is revealed by it. Webster's First Bunker HiU 
Oration and Burke's Speech on Conciliation with America 
are edited to meet the above requirements. Both of these 
selections are set for the college preparatory work, the exami- 
nation upon which presupposes a thorough study of the subject- 
matter, the form, and the period — literary and political — which 
they represent. 

These speeches are the highest types of oratory in the two 
great English-speaking nations, and the study of them should 
lead to a genuine appreciation of the noble character and lofty 
ideals of these great men. Burke and Webster are models in 
the forensic literature of our own language as truly as are 
Demosthenes and Cicero in the language of the ancient classics. 
Each has distinct and inimitable characteristics which give force 
and beauty to his work. The study of each should be ordered 
in such a way as to put one in touch with those quahties of 
mind and heart, of intellectual and moral manhood, by which 
each became a leader in political philosophy and a model in 
literary style. One who studies such authors in order to 
formulate a historical or a personal estimate merely, or to 
compare each as to certain externals of rhetorical form, has 
lost the true perspective of literary judgment. " The little con- 
ceited specialist," says Phillips Brooks, " with small curiosity, 
and less obedience, and no admiration, is incapable of the 
fullest approach and entrance of truth." 

Reading in the school and in the home is far too often pur- 
sued with a purpose to controvert and prove rather than to 
weigh and consider. Reading which does not result in enlarg- 
ing, stimulating, and refining one's nature is but a busy idleness. 
The schools should do something to correct the desultory and 
dissipating methods of reading, so prevalent in the home. 



PREFACE. XV 

Pupils must be stimulated first of all to enjoy what is beautiful 
in nature and art : for here is 

" A world of ready wealth, 
Their minds and hearts to bless — 
Spontaneous wisdom breathed by health, 
Truth breathed by cheerfulness." 

The wisdom of the classroom is too often " art tongue-tied 
by authority," and hence it is not wisdom at all, but a sham 
and a pretence. Not until pupils rise to the spontaneity which 
betokens a genuine love for the work in hand do they secure 
the richest results. 

I am constrained to protest against the method of annotation 
which prevails to such an extent in our text-books of English 
literature, — a method which pauperizes both teacher and pupil. 
When the notes furnish facts — biographical, historical, or Hn- 
guistic — instead of showing where they may be found ; when 
they present criticism — aesthetic, philosophical, or textual — 
instead of directing to the sources of such criticism, they are 
mischievous in the extreme. By such a method the teacher 
is led to believe that success in teaching depends upon abihty 
to dilate upon such material, and he begins at once to magnify 
these trifles until they obscure completely the end of reading ; 
sym.pathy with great truths and great men, love of beautiful 
conception and artistic execution languish and die ; while by 
this same method the pupil is taught to believe that his ability 
to read depends upon his schola7'ship in getting up notes — a 
mere lip service. 

Although Dr. Johnson's edition of Shakespeare may have 
been worthless as regards scholarship, yet the Preface shows 
vigorous English as well as colossal good sense. His remarks 



XVI PREFACE. 

on the use of notes are so fresh, so independent, and so sug- 
gestive, that I cannot refrain from quoting them. 

"Notes are often necessary," he says, "but they are neces- 
sary evils. Let him that is yet unacquainted with the powers 
of Shakespeare, and who desires to feel the highest pleasure 
that the drama can give, read every play from the first scene 
to the last, with utter negligence of all his commentators. 
When his fancy is once on the wing, let it not stoop to cor- 
rection or explanation. When his attention is strongly engaged, 
let it disdain ahke to turn aside to the names of Theobald and 
of Pope. Let him read on through brightness and obscurity, 
through integrity and corruption ; let him preserve his com- 
prehension of the dialogue and his interest in the fable. And 
when the pleasures of novelty have ceased, let him attempt 
exactness and read the commentators." 

When teachers insist upon notes that stimulate inquiry and 
send the mind on voyages of discovery, we may be assured 
such notes will be furnished ; but so long as they are apathetic, 
and love scholastic ease and padded texts, so long must they 

"Pore and dwindle as they pore." 

When both teacher and pupil look through the broad windows 
and breathe the atmosphere admitted through the open doors 
of imagination, instead of peering through the chinks and breath- 
ing the stifling air of the workshop, they will run and not be 
weary. 

At the meeting held in Faneuil Hall, Oct. 27, 1852, com- 
memorative of Mr. Webster's life and work, Mr. Edward 
Everett said : " Whoever, in after time, shall write the history 
of the United States for the last forty years will write the life of 
Daniel Webster ; and whoever writes the life of Daniel Webster 



PREFACE. XVll 

as it ought to be written, will write the history of the Union 
from the time he took a leading part in its concerns." Mr. 
Choate, at a meeting of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, 
Oct. 25, 1852, said: "Happier than the younger Pliny, hap- 
pier than Cicero, he has found his historian, unsolicited, in his 
lifetime, and his countrymen have him all by heart." 

If this volume shall aid in bringing the young of this genera- 
tion " to have him all by heart," to ascend his imaginative 
heights and sit under the shadow of his profound reflections 
on that which is fundamental in civil and religious liberty, its 
purpose will be accompHshed. 

The references in the notes to The First Settlement of New 
England, The Reply to Hayne, The Constitution not a Com- 
pact, and Burke's Speech on American Taxation will be found 
in Select Speeches of Daniel Webster, and Burke's American 
Orations, published by D. C. Heath & Co., they being the only 
editions of these speeches having numbered lines. In order 
that those who have other editions may readily find the ref- 
erences, I have quoted initial words in each case. 

A. J. G. 

Brookline, Nov. 1894. 



INTRODUCTION. 



Mr. Webster approaches as nearly to the beau ideal of a 
republican Senator as any man that I have ever seen in the 
course of my life ; worthy of Rome or Venice rather than of 
our noisy and wrangHng generation. — Hallam. 

Coleridge used to say that he had seldom known or heard of 
any great man who had not much of the woman in him. Even 
so the large intellect of Daniel Webster seemed to be coupled 
with all softer feehngs ; and his countenance and bearing, at 
the very first, impressed me with this. A commanding brow, 
thoughtful eyes, and a mouth that seemed to respond to all 
humanities. He deserves his fame, I am sure. — John Kenyon. 

He is a magnificent specimen. You might say to all the 
world, " This is our Yankee Englishman ; such limbs we make 
in Yankee-land ! " As a parliamentary Hercules one would 
incline to back him at first sight against all the extant world. 
The tanned complexion ; that amorphous craglike face ; the 
dull black eyes under the precipice of brows, like dull anthra- 
cite furnaces needing only to be blown; the mastiff mouth, 
accurately closed ; I have not traced so much of silent Berser- 
kir rage that I remember of in any other man. — Thomas 
Carlyle. 



XX INTRODUCTION. 

When the historian shall look back upon the first century of 
the American Republic, the two names that will shine with most 
unfading lustre and the serenest glory, high above all others, 
are Washington and Webster. — Professor Felton. 

Consider the remarkable phenomenon of excellence in three 
unkindred, one might have thought incompatible, forms of pub- 
lic speech, — that of the forum, with its double audience of 
bench and jury, of the halls of legislation, and of the most 
thronged and tumultuous assemblies of the people. Consider, 
further, that this multiform eloquence, exactly as his words fell, 
became at once so much accession to permanent literature in 
the strictest sense, — solid, attractive, rich, — and ask how often 
in the history of pubHc life such a thing has been exemplified. 
— RuFUS Choate. 

The noblest monument to Daniel Webster is in his works. 
As a repository of pohtical truth and practical wisdom, applied 
to the afiairs of government, I know not where we shall find 
their equal. The works of Burke naturally suggest themselves 
to the mind, as the only writings in our language that can sus- 
tain the comparison. — Edward Everett. 

He writes like a man who is thinking of his subject, and not 
of his style, and thus he wastes no time upon the mere garb of 
his thoughts. His style is Doric, not Corinthian. His sen- 
tences are like shafts hewn from the granite of his own hills, — 
simple, massive, strong. We may apply to him what Quinc- 
tihan says of Cicero, that a relish for his writings is itself a mark 
of good taste. — George S. Hillard. 



INTRODUCTION. xxi 

He taught the people of the United States, in the simplicity 
of common understanding, the principles of the Constitution 
and government of the country, and he wrought for them, in a 
style of matchless strength and beauty, the literature of states- 
manship. He made his language the very household words of 
a nation. They are the library of the people. They are the 
school-book of the citizen. — John D. Long. 

Take him for all in all, he was not only the greatest orator 
this country has ever known, but in the history of eloquence 
his name will stand with those of Demosthenes and Cicero, 
Chatham and Burke. — Henry Cabot Lodge. 

It may be said that the style of Webster is pre-eminently 
distinguished by manliness. The intellect and moral manliness 
of Webster underlies all his great orations and speeches ; and 
this plain force of manhood, this sturdy grapple with every 
question that comes before his understanding for settlement, 
leads him to reject all the meretricious aids and ornaments of 
mere rhetoric, and is prominent, among the many exceptional 
quahties of his large nature, which have given him a high posi- 
tion among the prose-writers of his country as a consummate 
master of English style. — Edwin P. Whipple. 

His broad, wise statesmanship is to be the ample and re- 
freshing shade, his character the bright and breezy presence, 
in which all the members of this great and illustrious Republic 
may meet and sit down and feast together. — H. N. Hudson. 



THE BUNKER HILL MONUMENT. 



This uncounted multitude before me and around me proves 
the feeling which the occasion has excited. These thousands 
of human faces, glowing with sympathy and joy, and from 
the impulses of a common gratitude turned reverently to 
S heaven in this spacious temple of the firmament, proclaim 
that the day, the place, and the purpose of our assembling 
have made a deep impression on our hearts.^ 

If, indeed, there be anything in local association fit to 
affect the mind of man, we need not strive to repress the 

iQ emotions which agitate us here. We are among the sepul- 
chres of our fathers. We are on ground, distinguished by 
their valor, their constancy, and the shedding of their blood. 
We are here, not to fix an uncertain date in our annals, nor 
to draw into notice an obscure and unknown spot. If our 

15 humble purpose had never been conceived, if we ourselves 
had never been born, the 1 7th of June, 1 775, would have been 
a day on which all subsequent history would have poured its 
light, and the eminence where we stand a point of attraction 
to the eyes of successive generations. But we are Americans. 

20 We live in what may be called the early age of this great 
continent ; and we know that our posterity, through all time, 
are here to enjoy and suffer the allotments of humanity. We 

1 



2 THE BUNKER HILL MONUMENT. 

see before us a probable train of great events ; we know that 
our own fortunes have been happily cast ; and it is natural, 
therefore, that we should be moved by the contemplation of 
occurrences which have guided our destiny before many of us 
were born, and settled the condition in which we should 5 
pass that portion of our existence which God allows to men 
on earth.^ 

We do not read even of the discovery of this continent, 
without feeling something of a personal interest in the event ; 
without being reminded how much it has affected our own 10 
fortunes and our own existence. It would be still more 
unnatural for us, therefore, than for others, to contemplate 
with unaffected minds that interesting, I may say that most 
touching and pathetic scene, when the great discoverer of 
America stood on the deck of his shattered bark, the shades 15 
of night falling on the sea, yet no man sleeping ; tossed on 
the billows of an unknown ocean, yet the stronger billows of 
alternate hope and despair tossing his own troubled thoughts ; 
extending forward his harassed frame, straining westward his 
anxious and eager eyes, till Heaven at last granted him a 20 
moment of rapture and ecstasy, in blessing his vision with 
the sight of the unknown world.^ 

Nearer to our times, more closely connected with our fates, 
and therefore still more interesting to our feelings and affec- 
tions, is the settlement of our own country by colonists from 25 
England. We cherish every memorial of these worthy 
ancestors ; we celebrate their patience and fortitude ; we 
admire their daring enterprise ; we teach our children to 
venerate their piety; and we are justly proud of being 
descended from men who have set the world an example of 30 
founding civil institutions on the great and united principles 



THE BUNKER HILL MONUMENT. 3 

of human freedom and human knowledge. To us, their chil- 
dren, the story of their labors and sufferings can never be 
without its interest. We shall not stand unmoved on the 
shore of Plymouth, while the sea continues to wash it ; nor 

5 will our brethren in another early and ancient Colony forget 
the place of its first establishment, till their river shall cease 
to flow by it.^ No vigor of youth, no maturity of manhood, 
will lead the nation to forget the spots where its infancy was 
cradled and defended.^ 

lo But the great event in the history of the continent, which 
we are now met here to commemorate, that prodigy of mod- 
ern times, at once the wonder and the blessing of the world, 
is the American Revolution. In a day of extraordinary 
prosperity and happiness, of high national honor, distinction, 

15 and power, we are brought together, in this place, by our 
love of country, by our admiration of exalted character, by 
our gratitude for signal services and patriotic devotion. 

The Society whose organ I am ^ was formed for the pur- 
pose of rearing some honorable and durable monument to 

20 the memory of the early friends of American Independence. 
They have thought, that for this object no time could be 
more propitious than the present prosperous and peaceful 
period ; that no place could claim preference over this 
memorable spot ; and that no day could be more auspicious 

25 to the undertaking than the anniversary of the battle which 
was here fought. The foundation of that monument we 
have now laid. With solemnities suited to the occasion, 
with prayers to Almighty God for his blessing, and in the 
midst of this cloud of witnesses, we have begun the work. 

30 We trust it will be prosecuted, and that, springing from a 



4 THE BUNKER HILL MONUMENT. 

broad foundation, rising high in massive solidity and una- 
dorned grandeur, it may remain as long as Heaven permits 
the works of men to last, a fit emblem, both of the events in 
memory of which it is raised, and of the gratitude of those 
who have reared it. 5 

We know, indeed, that the record of illustrious actions is 
most safely deposited in the universal remembrance of man- 
kind. We know, that if we could cause this structure to 
ascend, not only till it reached the skies, but till it pierced 
them, its broad surfaces could still contain but part of that lo 
which, in an age of knowledge, hath already been spread 
over the earth, and which history charges itself with making 
known to all future times. We know that no inscription on 
entablatures less broad than the earth itself can carry in- 
formation of the events we commemorate where it has not 15 
already gone ; and that no structure, which shall not outlive 
the duration of letters and knowledge among men, can pro- 
long the memorial. But our object is, by this edifice, to 
show our own deep sense of the value and importance of 
the achievements of our ancestors ; and, by presenting this 20 
work of gratitude to the eye, to keep alive similar senti- 
ments, and to foster a constant regard for the principles of 
the Revolution. Human beings are composed, not of reason 
only, but of imagination also, and sentiment ; and that is 
neither wasted nor misapplied which is appropriated to the 25 
purpose of giving right direction to sentiments, and opening 
proper springs of feeling in the heart.^ Let it not be sup- 
posed that our object is to perpetuate national hostility, or 
even to cherish a mere military spirit. It is higher, purer, 
nobler. We consecrate our work to the spirit of national 30 
independence, and we wish that the light of peace may rest 



THE BUNKER HILL MONUMENT. 5 

upon it forever. We rear a memorial of our conviction of 
that unmeasured benefit which has been conferred on our 
own land, and of the happy influences which have been 
produced, by the same events, on the general interests of 

S mankind. We come, as Americans, to mark a spot which 
must forever be dear to us and our posterity. We wish that 
whosoever, in all coming time, shall turn his eye hither, may 
behold that the place is not undistinguished where the first 
great battle of the Revolution was fought. We wish that 

lo this structure may proclaim the magnitude and importance 
of that event to every class and every age. We wish that 
infancy may learn the purpose of its erection from maternal 
lips, and that weary and withered age may behold it, and 
be solaced by the recollections which it suggests. We wish 

IS that labor may look up here, and be proud, in the midst of 
its toil. We wish that, in those days of disaster, which, as 
they come upon all nations, must be expected to come upon 
us also, desponding patriotism may turn its eyes hitherward, 
and be assured that the foundations of our national power 

20 are still strong.^ We wish that this column, rising towards 
heaven among the pointed spires of so many temples dedi- 
cated to God, may contribute also to produce, in all minds, 
a pious feeling of dependence and gratitude. We wish, 
finally, that the last object to the sight of him who leaves 

25 his native shore, and the first to gladden his who revisits it, 
may be something which shall remind him of the liberty and 
the glory of his country. Let it rise ! let it rise, till it meet 
the sun in his coming ; let the earliest light of the morning 
gild it, and parting day linger and play on its summit.^ 

30 We live in a most extraordinary age. Events so various 
and so important that they might crowd and distinguish cen- 



6 THE BUNKER HILL MONUMENT. 

tunes arC; in our times, compressed within the compass of a 
single life. When has it happened that history has had so 
much to record in the same term of years, as since the 1 7th 
of June, 1775? Our own Revolution, which, under other 
circumstances, might itself have been expected to occasion 5 
a war of half a century, has been achieved ; twenty-four 
sovereign and independent States erected; and a general 
government estabhshed over them, so safe, so wise, so free, 
so practical, that we might well wonder its establishment 
should have been accomphshed so soon, were it not far the 10 
greater wonder that it should have been established at all. 
Two or three millions of people have been augmented to 
twelve,^ the great forests of the West prostrated beneath the 
arm of successful industry, and the dwellers on the banks of 
the Ohio and the Mississippi become the fellow- citizens and 15 
neighbors of those who cultivate the hills of New England.^ 
We have a commerce, that leaves no sea unexplored ; navies, 
which take no law front superior force ; revenues, adequate 
to all the exigencies of government, almost without taxation \ 
and peace with all nations, founded on equal rights and 20 
mutual respect. 

Europe, within the same period, has been agitated by a 
mighty revolution, which, while it has been felt in the in- 
dividual condition and happiness of almost every man, has 
shaken to the centre her political fabric, and dashed against 25 
one another thrones which had stood tranquil for ages. On 
this, our continent, our own example has been followed, and 
colonies have sprung up to be nations. Unaccustomed 
sounds of liberty and free government have reached us 
from beyond the track of the sun ; and at this moment the 30 
dominion of European power in this continent, from the 



THE BUNKER HILL MONUMENT, 7 

place where we stand to the south pole, is annihilated for- 
ever. 

In the mean time, both in Europe and America, such has 
been the general progress of knowledge, such the imprbve- 

5 ment in legislation, in commerce, in the arts, in letters, and, 
above all, in liberal ideas and the general spirit of the age, 
that the whole world seems changed.-^ 

Yet, notwithstanding that this is but a faint abstract of the 
things which have happened since the day of the battle of 

lo Bunker Hill, we are but fifty years removed from it ; and we 
now stand here to enjoy all the blessings of our own condi- 
tion, and to look abroad on the brightened prospects of the 
world, while we still have among us some of those who were 
active agents in the scenes of 1775, and who are now here, 

15 from every quarter of New England, to visit once more, 
and under circumstances so affecting, I had almost said so 
overwhelming, this renowned theatre of their courage and 
patriotism. 

Venerable men ! you have come down to us from a 

20 former generation. Heaven has bounteously lengthened out 

your lives, that you might behold this joyous day. You are 

now where you stood fifty years ago, this very hour, with 

your brothers and your neighbors, shoulder to shoulder, in 

the strife for your country. Behold, how altered ! The 

25 same heavens are indeed over your heads ; the same ocean 

rolls at your feet ; but all else, how changed ! You hear 

now no roar of hostile cannon, you see no mixed volumes of 

smoke and flame rising from burning Charlestown. The 

ground strewed with the dead and the dying ; the impetuous 

30 charge ; the steady and successful repulse ; the loud call 



8 THE BUNKER HILL MONUMENT. 

to repeated assault; the summoning of all that is manly 
to repeated resistance ; a thousand bosoms freely and fear- 
lessly bared in an instant to whatever of terror there may 
be in war and death; — all these you have witnessed, 
but you witness them no more. All is peace. The heights s 
of yonder metropoHs, its towers and roofs, which you 
then saw filled with wives and children and countrymen in 
distress and terror, and looking with unutterable emotions 
for the issue of the combat, have presented you to-day with 
the sight of its whole happy population, come out to wel- lo 
come and greet you with a universal jubilee. Yonder proud 
ships, by a feUcity of position appropriately lying at the foot 
of this mount, and seeming fondly to cling around it, are 
not means of annoyance to you, but your country's own 
means of distinction and defence.^ All is peace ; and God 15 
has granted you the sight of your country's happiness, ere 
you slumber in the grave. He has allowed you to behold 
and to partake the reward of your patriotic toils ; and he 
has allowed us, your sons and countrymen, to meet you 
here, and in the name of the present generation, in the 20 
name of your country, in the name of liberty, to thank you ! ^ 
But, alas ! you are not all here ! Time and the sword 
have thinned your ranks. Prescott, Putnam, Stark, Brooks, 
Read, Pomeroy, Bridge ! our eyes seek for you in vain amid 
this broken band. You are gathered to your fathers, and 25 
live only to your country in her grateful remembrance and 
your own bright example. But let us not too much grieve, 
that you have met the common fate of men. You lived at 
least long enough to know that your work had been nobly 
and successfully accomplished. You lived to see your coun- 30 
try's independence established, and to sheathe your swords 



THE BUNKER HILL MONUMENT. 9 

from war, On the light of Liberty you saw arise the light 

of Peace, like 

" another morn, 
Risen on mid-noon ";i 

5 and the sky on which you closed your eyes was cloudless. 

But ah ! Him ! the first great martyr in this great cause ! 

Him ! the premature victim of his own self-devoting heart ! 

Him ! the head of our civil councils, and the destined leader 

of our military bands, whom nothing brought hither but the 

lo unquenchable fire of his own spirit ! Him ! cut off by Prov- 
idence in the hour of overwhelming anxiety and thick gloom ; 
falling ere he saw the star of his country rise ; pouring out 
his generous blood like water, before he knew whether it 
would fertilize a land of freedom or of bondage ! — how 

IS shall I struggle with the emotions that stifle the utterance of 
thy name ! Our poor work may perish ; but thine shall en- 
dure ! ^ This monument may moulder away ; the solid ground 
it rests upon may sink down to a level with the sea; but thy 
memory shall not fail ! Wheresoever among men a heart 

20 shall be found that beats to the transports of patriotism and 
liberty, its aspirations shall be to claim kindred with thy 
spirit ! 

But the scene amidst which we stand does not permit us 
to confine our thoughts or our sympathies to those fearless 

25 spirits who hazarded or lost their lives on this consecrated 
spot. We have the happiness to rejoice here in the pres- 
ence of a most worthy representation of the survivors of the 
whole Revolutionary army. 

Veterans ! you are the remnant of many a well-fought 

30 field. You bring with you marks of honor from Trenton 
and Monmouth, from Yorktown, Camden, Bennington, and 



10 THE BUNKER HILL MONUMENT. 

Saratoga. Veterans of half a century ! when in your 
youthful days you put everythmg at hazard in your country's 
cause, good as that cause was, and sanguine as youth is, 
still your fondest hopes did not stretch onward to an hour 
like this ! At a period to which you could not reasonably 5 
have expected to arrive, at a moment of national prosperity 
such as you could never have foreseen, you are now met 
here to enjoy the fellowship of old soldiers, and to receive 
the overflowings of a universal gratitude. 

But your agitated countenances and your heaving breasts 10 
inform me that even this is not an unmixed joy. I perceive 
that a tumult of contending feeling rushes upon you. The 
images of the dead, as well as the persons of the living, pre- 
sent themselves before you. The scene overwhelms you 
and I turn from it. May the Father of all mercies smile 15 
upon your declining years, and bless them ! And when you 
shall here have exchanged your embraces, when you shall 
once more have pressed the hands which have been so often 
extended to give succor in adversity, or grasped in the exul- 
tation of victory, then look abroad upon this lovely land 20 
which your young valor defended, and mark the happiness 
with which it is filled ; yea, look abroad upon the whole 
earth, and see what a name you have contributed to give to 
your country, and what a praise you have added to freedom, 
and then rejoice in the sympathy and gratitude which beam 25 
upon your last days from the improved condition of mankind ! 

The occasion does not require of me any particular account 
of the battle of the 1 7th of June, 1 775, nor any detailea nar- 
rative of the events which immediately preceded it. These 
are familiarly known to all. In the progress of the great and 30 



THE BUNKER HILL MONUMENT. 11 

interesting controversy, Massachusetts and the town of Bos- 
ton had become early and marked objects of the displeasure 
of the British Parhament. This had been manifested in the 
act for altering the government of the Province, and in that 
5 for shutting up the port of Boston. Nothing sheds more 
honor on our early history, and nothing better shows how 
little the feeUngs and sentiments of the Colonies were known 
or regarded in England, than the impression which these 
measures everywhere produced in America.^ It had been 

lo anticipated, that, while the Colonies in general would be ter- 
rified by the severity of the punishment inflicted on Massachu- 
setts, the other seaports would be governed by a mere spirit 
of gain ; and that, as Boston was now cut off from all com- 
merce, the unexpected advantage which this blow on her was 

15 calculated to confer on other towns would be greedily en- 
joyed. How miserably such reasoners deceived themselves ! 
How little they knew of the depth, and the strength, and 
the intenseness of that feeling of resistance to illegal acts of 
power, which possessed the whole American people ! Every- 

20 where the unworthy boon was rejected with scorn. The for- 
tunate occasion was seized everywhere, to show to the whole 
world that the Colonies were swayed by no local interest, no 
partial interest, no selfish interest. The temptation to profit 
by the punishment of Boston was strongest to our neighbors 

25 of Salem. Yet Salem was precisely the place where this 
miserable proffer was spurned, in a tone of the most lofty 
self-respect and the most indignant patriotism. " We are 
deeply affected," said its inhabitants, " with the sense of our 
public calamities ; but the miseries that are now rapidly has- 

30 tening on our brethren in the capital of the Province greatly 
excite our commiseration. By shutting up the port of Bos- 



12 THE BUNKER HILL MONUMENT. 

ton, some imagine that the course of trade might be turned 
hither and to our benefit; but we must be dead to every 
idea of justice, lost to all feelings of humanity, could we 
indulge a thought to seize on wealth and raise our fortunes 
on the ruin of our suffering neighbors." These noble senti- s 
ments were not confined to our immediate vicinity. In that 
day of general affection and brotherhood, the blow given to 
Boston smote on every patriotic heart from one end of the 
country to the other. Virginia and the Carolinas, as well 
as Connecticut and New Hampshire, felt and proclaimed lo 
the cause to be their own. The Continental Congress, then 
holding its first session in Philadelphia, expressed its sympa- 
thy for the suffering inhabitants of Boston, and addresses 
were received from all quarters, assuring them that the cause 
was a common one, and should be met by common efforts 15 
and common sacrifices. The Congress of Massachusetts 
responded to these assurances; and in an address to the 
Congress at Philadelphia, bearing the official signature, per- 
haps among the last, of the immortal Warren, notwithstand- 
ing the severity of its suffering and the magnitude of the 20 
dangers which threatened it, it was declared, that this Colony 
" is ready, at all times, to spend and to be spent in the cause 
of America." 

But the hour drew nigh which was to put professions to the 
proof, and to determine whether the authors of these mutual 25 
pledges were ready to seal them in blood. The tidings of 
Lexington and Concord had no sooner spread, than it was 
universally felt that the time was at last come for action. A 
spirit pervaded all ranks, not transient, not boisterous, but 
deep, solemn, determined, 30 

" totamque infusa per artus - 
Mens agitat molem, et magno se corpora miscet." ^ 



THE BUNKER HILL MONUMENT. 13 

War, on their own soil and at their own doors, was, indeed, a 
strange work to the yeomanry of New England ; but their 
consciences were convinced of its necessity, their country 
called them to it, and they did not withhold themselves from 

5 the perilous trial. The ordinary occupations of life were 
abandoned ; the plough was staid in the unfinished furrow ; 
wives gave up their husbands, and mothers gave up their sons, 
to the battles of a civil war. Death might come, in honor, 
on the field ; it might come, in disgrace, on the scaffold. 

lo For either and for both they were prepared. The sentiment 
of Quincy was full in their hearts. " Blandishments," said 
that distinguished son of genius and patriotism, "will not 
fascinate us, nor will threats of a halter intimidate ; for, under 
God, we are determined that, wheresoever, whensoever, or 

15 howsoever we shall be called to make our exit, we will die 
free men." 

The 17th of June saw the four New England Colonies 
standing here, side by side, to triumph or to fall together ; 
and there was with them from that moment to the end of 

20 the war, what I hope will remain with them forever : one 
cause, one country, one heart. 

The battle of Bunker Hill was attended with the most 
important effects beyond its immediate results as a military 
engagement. It created at once a state of open, public 

25 war. There could now be no longer a question of proceed- 
ing against individuals, as guilty of treason or rebelHon. 
That fearful crisis was past. The appeal lay to the sword, 
and the only question was, whether the spirit and the 
resources of the people would hold out, till the object should 

30 be accomplished. Nor were its general consequences con- 
fined to our own country. The previous proceedings of the 



14 THE BUNKER HILL MONUMENT. 

Colonies, their appeals, resolutions, and addresses, had made 
their cause known to Europe. Without boasting, we may- 
say, that in no age or country has the pubhc cause been 
maintained with more force of argument, more power of 
illustration, or more of that persuasion which excited feeling s 
and elevated principle can alone bestow, than the Revolu- 
tionary state papers exhibit. These papers will forever 
deserve to be studied, not only for the spirit which they 
breathe, but for the abiUty with which they were written.^ 

To this able vindication of their cause, the Colonies had lo 
now added a practical and severe proof of their own true 
devotion to it, and given evidence also of the power which 
they could bring to its support. All now saw, that if 
America fell, she would not fall without a struggle. Men 
felt sympathy and regard, as well as surprise, when they ig 
beheld these infant states, remote, unknown, unaided, en- 
counter the power of England, and, in the first considerable 
battle, leave more of their enemies dead on the field, in pro- 
portion to the number of combatants, than had been recently 
known to fall in the wars of Europe. 20 

Information of these events, circulating throughout the 
world, at length reached the ears of one who now hears me.^ 
He has not forgotten the emotion which the fame of Bunker 
Hill, and the name of Warren, excited in his youthful 
breast. 25 

. Sir, we are assembled to commemorate the establish- 
ment of great public principles of liberty, and to do honor 
to the distinguished dead. The occasion is too severe for 
eulogy of the living. But, Sir, your interesting relation to 
this country, the peculiar circumstances which surround you 30 



THE BUNKER HILL MONUMENT. 15 

and surround us, call on me to express the happiness which 
we derive from your presence and aid in this solemn 
commemoration. 

Fortunate, fortunate man ! with what measure of devotion 

S will you not thank God for the circumstances of your extraor- 
dinary life ! You are connected with both hemispheres and 
with two generations. Heaven saw fit to ordain, that the 
electric spark of liberty should be conducted, through you, 
from the New World to the Old ; and we, who are now here 

lo to perform this duty of patriotism, have all of us long ago 
received it in charge from our fathers to cherish your name 
and your virtues. You will account it an instance of your 
good fortune, Sir, that you crossed the seas to visit us at a 
time which enables you to be present at this solemnity. 

15 You now behold the field, the renown of which reached 
you in the heart of France, and caused a thrill in your ardent 
bosom. You see the lines of the little redoubt thrown up 
by the incredible diligence of Prescott; defended, to the 
last extremity, by his lion-hearted valor ; and within which 

20 the corner-stone of our monument has now taken its position. 
You see where Warren fell, and where Parker, Gardner, 
McCleary, Moore, and other early patriots, fell with him. 
Those who survived that day, and whose lives have been 
prolonged to the present hour, are now around you. Some 

25 of them you have known in the trying scenes of the war. 
Behold ! they now stretch forth their feeble arms to embrace 
you. Behold ! they raise their trembling voices to invoke 
the blessing of God on you and yours forever ! 

Sir, you have assisted us in laying the foundation of this 

30 structure. You have heard us rehearse, with our feeble 
commendation, the names of departed patriots. Monu- 



16 THE BUNKER HILL MONUMENT. 

ments and eulogy belong to the dead. We give them this 
day to Warren and his associates. On other occasions they 
have been given to your more immediate companions in 
arms, to Washington, to Greene, to Gates, to Sullivan, and 
to Lincoln. We have become reluctant to grant these, our 5 
highest and last honors, further. We would gladly hold 
them yet back from the little remnant of that immortal 
band. Serus in caelum redeas. Illustrious as are your merits, 
yet far, O very far distant be the day, when any inscription 
shall bear your name, or any tongue pronounce its eulogy ! 10 

The leading reflection to which this occasion seems to 
invite us, respects the great changes which have happened 
in the fifty years since the battle of Bunker Hill was fought. 
And it pecuharly marks the character of the present age, 
that, in looking at these changes, and in estimating their 15 
eflect on our condition, we are obliged to consider, not what 
has been done in our own country only, but in others also. 
In these interesting times, while nations are making separate 
and individual advances in improvement, they make, too, a 
common progress ; like vessels on a common tide, propelled 20 
by the gales at different rates, according to their several 
structure and management, but all moved forward by one 
mighty current, strong enough to bear onward whatever does 
not sink beneath it. 

A chief distinction of the present day is a community of 25 
opinions and knowledge amongst men in different nations, 
existing in a degree heretofore unknown. Knowledge has, 
in our time, triumphed, and is triumphing, over distance, 
over difference of languages, over diversity of habits, over 
prejudice, and over bigotry. The civilized and Christian 30 



THE BUNKER HILL MONUMENT. 17 

world is fast learning the great lesson, that difference of 
nation does not imply necessary hostihty, and that all con- 
tact need not be war. The whole world is becoming a 
common field for intellect to act in. Energy of mind, 

5 genius, power, wheresoever it exists, may speak out in any 
tongue, and the world will hear it. A great cord of senti- 
ment and feeling runs through two continents, and vibrates 
over both. Every breeze wafts intelligence from country to 
country ; every wave rolls it ; all give it forth, and all in 

lo turn receive it. There is a vast commerce of ideas ; there 
are marts and exchanges for intellectual discoveries, and a 
wonderful fellowship of those individual intelligences which 
make up the mind and opinion of the age. Mind is the 
great lever of all things ; human thought is the process by 

IS which human ends are ultimately answered ; and the diffu- 
sion of knowledge, so astonishing in the last half- century, 
has rendered innumerable minds, variously gifted by nature, 
competent to be competitors or fellow-workers on the theatre 
of intellectual operation. 

20 From these causes important improvements have taken 
place in the personal condition of individuals. Generally 
speaking, mankind are not only better fed and better 
clothed, but they are able also to enjoy more leisure ; they 
possess more refinement and more self-respect. A superior 

25 tone of education, manners, and habits prevails. This re- 
mark, most true in its application to our own country, is 
also partly true when apphed elsewhere. It is proved by 
the vastly augmented consumption of those articles of manu- 
facture and of commerce which contribute to the comforts 

30 and the decencies of life ; an augmentation which has far 
outrun the progress of population. And while the unexam- 



18 THE BUNKER HILL MONUMENT. 

pled and almost incredible use of machinery would seem to 
supply the place of labor, labor still finds its occupation and 
its reward ; so wisely has Providence adjusted men's wants 
and desires to their condition and their capacity. 

Any adequate survey, however, of the progress made dur- 5 
ing the last half-century in the poUte and the mechanic arts, 
in machinery and manufactures, in commerce and agricul- 
ture, in letters and in science, would require volumes. I 
must abstain wholly from these subjects, and turn for a 
moment to the contemplation of what has been done on the 10 
great question of pohtics and government. This is the 
master topic of the age ; and during the whole fifty years it 
has intensely occupied the thoughts of men. The nature of 
civil government, its ends and uses, have been canvassed 
and investigated ; ancient opinions attacked and defended ; 15 
new ideas recommended and resisted, by whatever power 
the mind of man could bring to the controversy. From the 
closet and the public halls the debate has been transferred 
to the field ; and the world has been shaken by wars of un- 
exampled magnitude, and the greatest variety of fortune. A 20 
day of peace has at length succeeded ; and now that the 
strife has subsided, and the smoke cleared away, we may 
begin to see what has actually been done, permanently 
changing the state and condition of human society. And, 
without dwelling on particular circumstances, it is most ap- 25 
parent, that, from the before-mentioned causes of aug- 
mented knowledge and improved individual condition, a 
real, substantial, and important change has taken place, and 
is taking place, highly favorable, on the whole, to human 
hberty and human happiness. 30 

The great wheel of political revolution began to move in 



THE BUNKER HILL MONUMENT. 19 

America. Here its rotation was guarded, regular, and safe. 
Transferred to the other continent, from unfortunate but 
natural causes, it received an irregular and violent impulse ; 
it whirled along with a fearful celerity ; till at length, hke 

S the chariot-wheels in the races of antiquity, it took fire 
from the rapidity of its own motion, and blazed onward, 
spreading conflagration and terror around. 

We learn from the result of this experiment, how fortu- 
nate was our own condition, and how admirably the charac- 

lo ter of our people was calculated for setting the great exam- 
ple of popular governments.-^ The possession of power did 
not turn the heads of the American people, for they had 
long been in the habit of exercising a great degree of self- 
control. Although the paramount authority of the parent 

1,5 state existed over them, yet a large field of legislation had 
always been open to our Colonial assemblies. They were 
accustomed to representative bodies and the forms of free 
government; they understood the doctrine of the division 
of power among different branches, and the necessity of 

20 checks on each. The character of our countrymen, more- 
over, was sober, moral, and religious ; and there was Httle in 
the change to shock their feehngs of justice and humanity, or 
even to disturb an honest prejudice. We had no domestic 
throne to overturn, no privileged orders to cast down, no 

25 violent changes of property to encounter. In the American 
Revolution, no man sought or wished for more than to de- 
fend and enjoy his own. None hoped for plunder or for 
spoil. Rapacity was unknown to it ; the axe was not among 
the instruments of its accomplishment; and we all know 

30 that it could not have lived a single day under any well- 
founded imputation of possessing a tendency adverse to the 
Christian religion. 



20 THE BUNKER HILL MONUMENT. 

It need not surprise us, that, under circumstances less 
auspicious, political revolutions elsewhere, even when well 
intended, have terminated differently. It is, indeed, a great 
achievement, it is the master-work of the world, to estabhsh 
governments entirely popular on lasting foundations ; nor is 5 
it easy, indeed, to introduce the popular principle at all into 
governments to which it has been altogether a stranger. It 
cannot be doubted, however, that Europe has come out of 
the contest, in which she has been so long engaged, with 
greatly superior knowledge, and, in many respects, in a 10 
highly improved condition. Whatever benefit has been ac- 
quired is hkely to be retained, for it consists mainly in the 
acquisition of more enlightened ideas. And although king- 
doms and provinces may be wrested from the hands that 
hold them, in the same manner they were obtained ; although 15 
ordinary and vulgar power may, in human affairs, be lost as it 
has been won ; yet it is the glorious prerogative of the em- 
pire of knowledge, that what it gains it never loses. On the 
contrary, it increases by the multiple of its own power ; all 
its ends become means ; all its attainments, helps to new 20 
conquests. Its whole abundant harvest is but so much seed 
wheat, and nothing has limited, and nothing can limit, the 
amount of ultimate product. 

Under the influence of this rapidly increasing knowledge, 
the people have begun, in forms of government, to think 25 
and to reason, on affairs of state. Regarding government 
as an institution for the public good, they demand a knowl- 
edge of its operations, and a participation in its exercise. A 
call for the representative system, wherever it is not enjoyed, 
and where there is already intelligence enough to estimate 30 
its value, is perseveringly made. Where men may speak 



THE BUNKER HILL MONUMENT. 21 

out, they demand it ; where the bayonet is at their throats, 
they pray for it. 

When Louis the Fourteenth said : " I am the state," he 
expressed the essence of the doctrine of unUmited power. 

5 By the rules of that system, the people are disconnected 
from the state ; they are its subjects ; it is their lord. These 
ideas, founded in the love of power, and long supported by 
the excess and the abuse of it, are yielding, in our age, to 
other opinions ; and the civilized world seems at last to be 

lo proceeding to the conviction of that fundamental and mani- 
fest truth, that the powers of government are but a trust, and 
that they cannot be lawfully exercised but for the good of 
the community. As knowledge is more and more extended, 
this conviction becomes more and more general. Knowl- 

15 edge, in truth, is the great sun in the firmament. Life and 
power are scattered with all its beams. The prayer of the 
Grecian champion, when enveloped in unnatural clouds and 
darkness, is the appropriate political suppHcation for the 
people of every country not yet blessed with free institu- 

20 tions : — 

" Dispel this cloud, the light of heaven restore, 
Give me to see, — and Ajax asks no more." ^ 

We may hope that the glowing influence of enlightened 
sentiment will promote the permanent peace of the world. 

25 Wars to maintain family alliances, to uphold or to cast down 
dynasties, and to regulate successions to thrones, which have 
occupied so much room in the history of modern times, if 
not less likely to happen at all, will be less Hkely to become 
general and involve many nations, as the great principle 

30 shall be more and more established, that the interest of the 



22 THE BUNKER HILL MONUMENT. 

world is peace, and its first great statute, that every nation 
possesses the power of estabUshing a government for itself. 
But public opinion has attained also an influence over gov- 
ernments which do not admit the popular principle into 
their organization. A necessary respect for the judgment s 
of the world operates, in some measure, as a control over 
the most unlimited forms of authority. It is owing, perhaps, 
to this truth, that the interesting struggle of the Greeks has 
been suffered to go on so long, without a direct interference, 
either to wrest that country from its present masters, or to lo 
execute the system of pacification by force, and, with united 
strength, lay the neck of Christian and civilized Greek at the 
foot of the barbarian Turk.^ Let us thank God that we live 
in an age when something has influence besides the bayonet, 
and when the sternest authority does not venture to en- 15 
counter the scorching power of public reproach. Any at- 
tempt of the kind I have mentioned should be met by one 
universal burst of indignation ; the air of the civilized world 
ought to be made too warm to be comfortably breathed by 
any one who would hazard it. 20 

It is, indeed, a touching reflection, that, while, in the ful- 
ness of our country's happiness, we rear this monument to 
her honor, we look for instruction in our undertaking to a 
country which is now in fearful contest, not for works of art 
or memorials of glory, but for her own existence. Let her 25 
be assured that she is not forgotten in the world ; that her 
efforts are applauded, and that constant prayers ascend for 
her success. And let us cherish a confident hope for her 
final triumph. If the true spark of religious and civil liberty 
be kindled, it will burn. Human agency cannot extinguish 30 
it. Like the earth's central fire, it may be smothered for a 



THE BUNKER HILL MONUMENT. 23 

time ; the ocean may overwhelm it ; mountains may press it 
down ; but its inherent and unconquerable force will heave 
both the ocean and the land, and at some time or other, in 
some place or other, the volcano will break out and flame 
5 up to heaven.^ 

Among the great events of the half-century, we must 
reckon, certainly, the revolution of South America ; and we 
are not likely to overrate the importance of that revolution, 
either to the people of the country itself or to the rest of the 

lo world. The late Spanish colonies, now independent states, 
under circumstances less favorable, doubtless, than attended 
our own revolution, have yet successfully commenced their 
national existence. They have accomplished the great 
object of establishing their independence ; they are known 

15 and acknowledged in the world ; and although in regard to 
their systems of government, their sentiments on rehgious 
toleration, and their provisions for public instruction, they 
may have yet much to learn, it must be admitted that they 
have risen to the condition of settled and established states 

20 more rapidly than could have been reasonably anticipated. 
They already furnish an exhilarating example of the differ- 
ence between free governments and despotic misrule. Their 
commerce, at this moment, creates a new activity in all the 
great marts of the world. They show themselves able, by 

25 an exchange of commodities, to bear a useful part in the 
intercourse of nations. 

A new spirit of enterprise and industry begins to prevail ; 
all the great interests of society receive a salutary impulse ; 
and the progress of information not only testifies to an im- 

30 proved condition, but itself constitutes the highest and mosi; 
essential improvement. 



24 THE BUNKER HILL MONUMENT. 

When the Battle of Bunker Hill was fought, the existence 
of South America was scarcely felt in the civilized world. 
The thirteen little Colonies of North America habitually 
called themselves the " Continent." • Borne down by colonial 
subjugation, monopoly, and bigotry, these vast regions of s 
the South were hardly visible above the horizon. But in 
our day there has been, as it were, a new creation. The 
southern hemisphere emerges from the sea. Its lofty moun- 
tains begin to lift themselves into the light of heaven ; its 
broad and fertile plains stretch out, in beauty, to the eye of lo 
civiHzed man, and at the mighty bidding of the voice of 
political liberty the waters of darkness retire. 

And now, let us indulge an honest exultation in the con- 
viction of the benefit which the example of our country has 
produced, and is likely to produce, on human freedom and 15 
human happiness. Let us endeavor to comprehend in all 
its magnitude, and to feel in all its importance, the part 
assigned to us in the great drama of human affairs. We 
are placed at the head of the system of representative and 
popular governments. Thus far our example shows that 20 
such governments are compatible, not only with respect- 
ability and power, but with repose, with peace, with security 
of personal rights, with good laws, and a just administra- 
tion.^ 

We are not propagandists. Wherever other systems are 25 
preferred, either as being thought better in themselves, or 
as better suited to existing condition, we leave the prefer- 
ence to be enjoyed. Our history hitherto proves, however, 
that the popular form is practicable, and that with wisdom 
and knowledge men may govern themselves ; and the duty 30 



THE BUNKER HILL MONUMENT. 25 

incumbent on us is, to preserve the consistency of this 
cheering example, and take care that nothing may weaken 
its authority with the world. If, in our case, the represen- 
tative system ultimately fail, popular governments must be 

5 pronounced impossible. No combination of circumstances 
more favorable to the experiment can ever be expected to 
occur. The last hopes of mankind, therefore, rest with us ; 
and if it should be proclaimed, that our example had become 
an argument against the experiment, the knell of popular 

lo liberty would be sounded throughout the earth. 

These are excitements to duty ; but they are not sugges- 
tions of doubt. Our history and our condition, all that is 
gone before us, and all that surrounds us, authorize the be- 
lief, that popular governments, though subject to occasional 

15 variations, in form perhaps not always for the better, may 
yet, in their general character, be as durable and permanent 
as other systems. We know, indeed, that in our country any 
other is impossible. The principle of free governments ad- 
heres to the American soil. It is bedded in it, immovable 

20 as its mountains. 

And let the sacred obligations which have devolved on 
this generation, and on us, sink deep into our hearts. Those 
who established our liberty and our government are daily 
dropping from among us. The great trust now descends to 

25 new hands. Let us apply ourselves to that which is pre- 
sented to us, as our appropriate object. We can win no 
laurels in a war for independence. Earlier and worthier 
hands have gathered them all. Nor are there places for us 
by the side of Solon, and Alfred, and other founders of 

30 states. Our fathers have filled them. But there remains to 
us a great duty of defence and preservation ; and there is 



26 THE BUNKER HILL MONUMENT. 

opened to us, also, a noble pursuit, to which the spirit of the 
times strongly invites us. Our proper business is improve- 
ment. Let our age be the age of improvement. In a day 
of peace, let us advance the arts of peace and the works of 
peace. Let us develop the resources of our land, call forth 5 
its powers, build up its institutions, promote all its great 
interests, and see whether we also, in our day and genera- 
tion, may not perform something worthy to be remembered. 
Let us cultivate a true spirit of union and harmony. In 
pursuing the great objects which our condition points out to 10 
us, let us act under a settled conviction, and an habitual 
feeling, that these twenty-four States are one country. Let 
our conceptions be enlarged to the circle of our duties. 
Let us extend our ideas over the whole of the vast field in 
which we are called to act. Let our object be, our country, 15 

OUR WHOLE COUNTRY, AND NOTHING BUT OUR COUNTRY. And, 

by the blessing of God, may that country itself become a 
vast and splendid monument, not of oppression and terror, 
but of Wisdom, of Peace, and of Liberty, upon which the 
world may gaze with admiration forever ! ^ 20 



BIOGRAPHICAL. 



First Period : Law and Politics in New Hampshire. 

1782 Born at Salisbury, New Hampshire, January 18. 

Early Education. 
1797 Enters Dartmouth College, 
1805 Admitted to the Bar, 1805. 

Practises in Boscawen. 
1807 Removes to Portsmouth, New Hampshire. 
1813 Elected to Congress from Portsmouth. 
1814-15 The Hartford Convention. 



Second Period : Leader at the Bar and in the Forum. 

1816 Removes to Boston, Massachusetts. 

181 7 "The Defence of the Kennistons." 

1 81 8 "The Dartmouth College Case." 
1820 Massachusetts Convention. 

" First Settlement of New England." 
1822 Elected to Congress from Boston. 
1825 " The Bunker Hill Monument." 



Third Period : Expounder and Defender of the Constitution, 

1827 Elected to the Senate from Massachusetts. 
1830 "The Reply to Hayne." 

1833 " The Constitution not a Compact between Sovereign States." 
'^33-34 Removal of the Deposits from the United States Bank. 
Rise of the Whig Party, 

27 



28 BIOGRAPHICAL. 

1835 Nominated to the Presidency by the Whigs of Massachusetts 

1837 Reception in New York. 

1839 Visits England. 

1840 Presidential Canvass. 
1840-43 Secretary of State. 

Ashburton Treaty. 

Resigns the Department of State. 

1844 Re-elected to the Senate from Massachusetts. 

1845 " Eulogy on Justice Story." 
Annexation of Texas. 

1846 Banquet in Philadelphia. 
1850 Seventh of March Speech. 

Secretary of State under President Fillmore. 
1852 Public Reception in Boston. 
Last Illness and Death. 



ANALYSIS OF PROSE STYLE. 



Elements. 



Vocabulary Peculiarities. 

Sentence Kinds. 

Paragraph Structure. 

Imagery Clearness, Emphasis, Beauty. 



Qualities. 

Intellectual . 
Impassioned 
Artistic . . 



Processes. 



Clearness 



Force 



Beauty 



Simplicity. 

Precision. 

Balance. 

Sublimity. 

Pathos. 

Irony. 

Euphony. 

Rhythm. 

Harmony. 



Description . . Circumstantial. Dynamic. Suggestive. 

Narration . . Historical. Biographical. Dramatic. Creative. 

Exposition . . Intensive. Extensive. Inductive. Deductive. 

Persuasion . . To Thought. To Feeling. To Will. 



Divisions. 



T/ie Scientific 
The Poetic . 



Ministering to one's instinct for knowledge." 
Ministering to one's instinct for conduct and 
beauty." 



Essentials. 



"Truth and seriousness of subject.' 
" Beauty and felicity of form," 



The characteristic A^ote of the writer. 
29 



NOTES. 

THE BUNKER HILL MONUMENT. 
June, 1825. 

The following reminiscence of Mr. George Ticknor is of special interest 
as bearing upon the events which led to the election of Mr. Webster as 
the orator at the laying the corner-stone of Bunker Hill Monument. 

" Mr. Webster was president of the Bunker Hill Association and, as 
such, presided at the meeting of the trustees when he was appointed. On 
the evening when he was chosen, being present as one of the trustees, he 
took me aside, and asked me if I supposed all the trustees would prefer to 
have him deliver the address. I told him that I thought there was no 
difference of opinion on the point. I told him that I thought he would 
fulfil public expectation better than any one else; and that I thought his 
place rather called on him to perform the duty. 

" He often talked with me of the work afterward, and seemed quite 
anxious about it, especially after it was decided that General Lafayette 
could be present. A few days before he delivered it, he read it over to 
me. The magnificent opening gave him much concern; so did the 
address to Lafayette; but about that to the Revolutionary soldiers and 
the survivors of the battle, he said that he felt as if he knew how to talk to 
such men, for that his father, and many of his father's friends whom he 
had known, had been among them. He said he had known General 
vStark, and that the last time he saw him was in a tavern in Concord, not 
long before he died, when he said to him: 'Daniel, your face is pretty 
black, but it isn't so black as your father's was with gunpowder at the 
Bennington fight.' " 

As early as 1776, the Massachusetts Lodge of Masons, over which Gen- 
eral Warren had presided, asked the Government of Massachusetts for 

30 



NOTES. 31 

permission to take up his remains, which were buried on the hill the day 
after the battle, and bury them with the usual solemnities. The request 
was granted on condition that the government of the colony should be 
permitted to erect a monument to his memory. 

The ceremonies of burial were performed, but no steps were taken to 
build the monument. General Warren was, at the time of his death, 
Grand Master of the Masonic Lodges of America, and as nothing had been 
done toward erecting a memorial, King Solomon's Lodge of Charlestown 
voted to erect a monument. The land was purchased, and a monument 
dedicated by the Lodge Dec. 2, 1794. It was a wooden pillar of Tuscan 
order, eighteen feet high, raised on a pedestal ten feet in height. The 
pillar was surmounted by a gilt urn. An appropriate inscription was 
placed on the south side of the pedestal. 

The half-century from the date of the battle was at hand, and, despite 
a resolution of Congress and the efforts of a committee of the Legislature 
of Massachusetts, no suitable monument had been erected by the people. 
It was then that, at the suggestion of William Tudor, the inatter was taken 
up in earnest and an association was formed known as the Bunker Hill 
Monument Association. Ground was broken for the monument June 7, 
1825. On the morning of the 17th of June, 1825, the ceremonies of 
laying the corner-stone of the monument took place. It was a typical 
June day, and thousands flocked to see the pageant and to hear the great- 
est orator in the land. 

The procession started from the State House at ten o'clock. The mili- 
tary led the van. About two hundred veterans of the Revolution rode in 
carriages, and among them were forty survivors of the battle. Some wore 
their old uniform, others various decorations of their service, and some 
bore the scars of honorable wounds. Following the patriots came the 
Monument Association, and then the Masonic fraternity to the number of 
thousands. Then came the noble Frenchman, Lafayette, the admiration 
of all eyes. Following him were numerous societies with banners and 
music. The head of the procession touched Charlestown Bridge before 
the rear had left the State House, and the march was a continual ovation. 
Arriving at Breed's Hill, the Grand Master of the Masons, Lafayette, and 
the president of the Monument Association laid the corner-stone, and then 
moved to the spacious amphitheatre on the northern side of the hill, where 
the address was delivered by Mr. Webster. 



32 NOTES. 

P. I, 1. 7. I. Compare this introductory paragraph with that of the First 
Settlement of Neiv England and that of the Reply to Hayne. How many 
years elapsed between these successive speeches ? 

P. 2, 1. 7. I. Compare this paragraph with that in First Settlef?tent of 
New England, beginning with line 24, page 63. "There is a local 
feeling," etc. 

1. 22. 2. Compare this paragraph with lines 2-28, page 64, — First 
Settlement of Nezv England. "The imagination," etc. 

P. 3, 1. 7. I. An account of the voyage of the emigrants to the Mary- 
land Colony is given in the report of Father White, written soon after 
landing at St. Mary's. The original is preserved by the Jesuits at Rome. 
Cf. Bancroft's History of the United States, Vol. I., Ch. X. 

1. 9. 2. Compare this paragraph with that in First Settlement of New 
England, page 63, lines 5-23. " Standing in this relation," etc. 

1. 18. 3. Mr. Webster was at this time president of the Monument 
Association. 

p. 4, 1. 27. I. Cf. page 62, line 19 et seq., in First Settlement of Nexv 
England. " Poetry is found to have," etc. 

P. 5, 1. 29. 2. Compare this paragraph from line 6, page 5, with the last 
paragraph of First Settlement of New England. 

P. 6, 1. 13. I. Even the poetical mind of Webster would not have 
been equal to the conception that within the century the number would 
reach sixty millions. 

1. 16. 2. "The first railroad on the continent was constructed for the 
purpose of accelerating this monument," — Everett. 

P. 7, 1. 7. I. Look up the detail in regard to this topic which Web- 
ster gives in First Settle7nent of Nezv England, page 97-112. "It would 
far exceed," etc. 

P,8, 1. 15. I. The allusion is to the ships about the Charlestown Navy 
Yard, which is at the base of Breed's Hill. 

1. 21. 2. This magnificent address to the "Venerable Men" was com- 
posed while Mr. Webster was fishing in Marshpee brook. 

P. 9, 1. 4. I. Cf. Milton's Paradise Lost, V. hne 310-31 1. 

1. 17. 2. Cf. Bancroft's Histo7'y of the United States, Vol. IV., page 133. 
A prelude to Warren's patriotism at Bunker Hill is his oration at the 
Old South Meeting House, commemorating the Boston Massacre. In the 
presence of British soldiers he said : " Our streets are again filled with 



NOTES. Zl 

armed men, our harbor is crowded with ships of war, but these cannot 
intimidate us: my fellow- citizens, you will maintain your rights, or perish 
in the generous struggle." 

P. II, 1. 9. I. Cf. Burke's speech on American Taxation. 

P. 12, 1. 32. I. Virgil's ^neid^ VI., 726. Compare Burke's use of 
the same in his speech on American Taxation, page 13, line 13, 

P. 14,1. 9. I. Cf. Bancroft's History of the United States, Vol. IV., 
Ch. XIV. 

1. 22. 2. General Lafayette had arranged his progress through the other 
States so that he might be present on the 17th. 

P. 19, 1. 32. I. Compare this paragraph with that in First Settlement 
of New England, page 90, line 24. " With the Revolution," etc. 

P. 21, 1. 22. I. Homer's Iliad, Book XVII. 

P. 22, 13. I. In Mr. Webster's speech on the Greek Revolution, made 
on 19th January, 1824, he said : " Christianity and civihzation have labored 
together; it seems, indeed, to be a law of our common condition, that they 
can live and flourish only together." 

Benjamin Kidd in his great work. Social Evolution, expresses this same 
idea, when he says : "The Evolution which is slowly proceeding in human 
society is not primarily intellectual, but religious in character." Ch. IX., 
page 245. 

P. 23, 1. 5. I. Compare this paragraph, from page 22, line 29, with that 
on page 118, line 4, in First Settlement of N'eiv England. "Finally, let 
us," etc. 

1. 10. 2. In the Speech on the Greek Revolution, Mr. Webster said: 
" There is an important topic in the message to which I have yet hardly 
alluded. I mean the rumored combination of the European continental 
sovereigns against the newly established free States of South America. 
Whatever position this government may take on that subject, I trust it will 
be one which can be defended on known and acknowledged grounds of 
right. The near approach or the remote distance of danger may affect 
policy but cannot change principle." 

P. 24, 1. 24. I. Compare this paragraph with that in First Settlement 
of New England., page 118, lines 14-29. "The hours of this day," etc. 

P. 26, 1. 20. I . Compare this paragraph with that in Reply to Hayne, 
page 233, line 5-page 234, line 9, " I have not allowed myself," etc. ; Con- 
stitution not a Compact, page 251, lines 15-26. "Sir, I love liberty," etc. 



34 NOTES. 

Great as the Plymouth Oration was acknowledged to be by all, the 
Bunker Hill Address was a distinct advance upon it, both in the scope of 
the ideas and in the skill with which they are wrought into an organic 
whole. It is more compact, more picturesque, more vigorous, more fin- 
ished. In this field of oratory, Mr. Webster probably has never had any 
equal in the English-speaking world. 

Mr. Everett said of the Address : " From such an orator as Mr. Web- 
ster, on such a platform, on such a theme, in the flower of his age, and the 
maturity of his faculties, discoursing upon an occasion of transcendent 
interest, and kindling with the enthusiasm of the day and the spot, it 
might well be regarded as an intellectual treat of the highest order. 
Happy the eyes that saw that most glorious gathering ! Happy the ears 
that heard that heart-stirring strain ! " 

Lafeyette wrote to Webster on the 28th of December, 1825, from La 
Grange, saying : ' ' Your Bunker Hill has been translated into French, and 
other languages, to the very great profit of European readers." 

Mr. Hillard, in his Eulogy on Webster, says : " His occasional discourses 
rise above the rest of their class, as the Bunker Hill Monument soars above 
the objects around it." 

Mr. Choate, in his address to the students of Dartmouth College, in 
1853, in that sublime paragraph in which he reviews the history of oratory 
and contrasts the eloquence of despair with the eloquence of hope, says : 
" Let the downward age of America find its orators, and poets, and artists, 
to erect its spirit, or grace and soothe its dying; be it ours to go up with 
Webster to the rock, the monument, the capitol, and bid the distant gen- 
erations hail." 

References . — Life of Webster, Ch. XL; Everett's Memoir .^ in Vol. I. 
of Webster's Works; Lodge's Webster, Ch. IV.; Memorial of Webster, 
Mr. Hillard's and Mr. Choate's Address; J. Fiske's The American Revo- 
lution; E. P. Whipple's Daniel Webster, in Vol. I., Essays and Reviews ; 
E. P. Whipple's Webster as. a Master of English Style, American Liter- 
ature ; H. N. Hudson's Address on the looth Anniversary of JVebster''s 
Birth (Ginn & Co.); Peter Harvey's Reminiscences of Webster; Select 
Speeches of Daniel Webster (ed. George). 



ENGLISH. 



63 



Wordsworth's Prelude. 

An Autobiographical Poem. Annotated by A. J, George, A.M. Cloth. 354 
pages. Retail price, $1.25. Special price for class use. 

THIS work is prepared as an introduction to the life and poetry of 
Wordsworth. The poet himself said, " My life is written in my 
works." The life of a man who did so much to make modern litera- 
ture a moral and spiritual force cannot fail to be of interest to students 
of history and literature. 

Many who are familiar with Tintern Abbey and the Ode confess 
that they are unable to grasp their significance until shown the prin- 
ciples of life out of which these productions grow, of which they are 
the choicest fruitage. The pure, transparent and beautiful English ; 
the grace and melody of versification ; the sinewy strength of single 
lines, the spirit of candor and lofty moral purpose, — these stamp 
the Prelude as one of the significant works of the' century. 

Special circular on this book sent free on application. 



A. S. Hill, Prof, of Rhetoric, Har- 
vard Univ.: The book is admirably 
adapted for the purpose the editor had in 
view — a text-book in schools. 

J. W. Bright, Associate in Eng., 
Johns Hopkins Univ.: In the notes the 
editor has attained unusual excellence in 
the important feature of a minute and ac- 
curate study of the local history and geog- 
raphy of the poem. 

Aubrey de Vere, Author of Critical 
Essays on Wordsworth: A valuable 
edition ; to be followed, I trust, by volumes 
embodying all the works of that great 
poet and great man. The preface itself 
cannot fail to promote largely an appre- 
ciation of Wordsworth's poetry in Amer- 
ica ; written, as it is, alike with discrimi- 
nation and with eloquence, and enriched 
by references to earlier critics. 

Hiram Corson, Prof of Eng. Lit., 
Cornell Univ. : The notes are the most 
judicious I have met with for many a day. 
The book ought to be in every school in 
the land. 



Fanny G. Wordswortli {Mrs^ 
William Wordsworth), The Stepping- 
Stones, Ambleside, Eitgland : The de- 
lightful edition of the " Prelude " seems 
to be indeed all that we could possibly 
wish it to be. The notes are most -accu- 
rately and carefully arranged, and in all 
ways exceedingly harmonious and suitable. 

Dr. Horace Howard Purness, 

Phil.: It is an admirable edition with a 
delightful preface. 

Julius H. Seelye, P7'es. Amherst 
Coll. : I have read the preface and looked 
over the notes with great pleasure, but 
with no surprise at the work so well done. 

The Critic, A". Y. : The admirable 
notes, full without being in the least cum- 
brous, furnish all explanation that can be 
needed, and are especially valuable in 
faithfully fixing the localities alluded to in 
the poem. 

The British Mail: The notes are 
both scholarly and appreciative. The 
editing could not have been in better 
hands. 



64 



ENGLISH. 



Rev. Phillips Brooks : I have 
read the dehghtful edition of the " Pre- 
lude," and I congratulate the editor upon 
his metliod of deahng with the poet, and 
his success in making the poet's work 
more widely known. 

Dr. A. P. Peabody, Harvard Coll.: 
Permit me to express my high apprecia- 
tion of the taste, skill, and substantial 
merit of the editorial work in both preface 



and notes, equally adapted to the edifica- 
tion of those already familiar with Words- 
worth, and to the instruction of those 
who come fresh to the enjoyment of his 
works. 

Hon. Geo. F. Hoar, M. C , Wash- 
ington : I have read the preface with great 
delight, and see that there is much in- 
structive and stimulant matter in the 
notes. Wordsworth seems inexhaustible. 



Selections from Wordsworth . 

Edited, with notes, by A. J. George, A. M., Editor of " The Prelude." Cloth. 
452 pages. Retail price, ^1.50. Special price for class use. 

THESE Selections are chosen with a view to illustrate the growth 
of Wordsworth's viind and art j they comprise only such 
poems of each period as are considered the poet's best work. 

The editor, by the light of the Fenwick notes (dictated by Words- 
worth himself) and by timely suggestions of relatives and friends of 
the poet, has carefully studied the localities described in the poems^ 
and has used such material from these sources as will assist the 
student in appreciating the spirit of Wordsworth's work. 

The method of annotation used in the edition of the Prelude^ which 
was received with so much favor by teachers of literature, has been 
followed here ; a method which insists upon the study of literature as 
///<?r^/?^r^, and not as a field for the display of the technicalities of 
grammar, philology and poetics. 



London Saturday Review : This 
work has been received with great favor. 
The selection shows at all points extreme 
care and excellent judgment. The book 
certainly merits the approbation of all 
Wordsworthians. 

London Journal of Education : 
Mr. George, as he has already proved by 
his edition of the Prehcdc, is a devout and 
learned Wordsworthian. 

London Tablet : This collection is 
an excellent one. Mr. George has done 
his work well. 

Mod. Lang. Notes : The volume 



is made with excellent taste, and the notes 
are very helpful. 

Public Opinion, Washington, D. 
C. : The book takes its place with the 
best Wordsworthian Literature. 

The Critic, N. Y. : All students owe 
a debt of gratitude to A. J. George for 
this collection. 

The Dial, Chicago : Mr. George's 
best work is upon the notes : and for these, 
as for those in his previous volume, he 
deserves great credit. We welcome this 
book as one of special value to students. 



ENGLISH. 65 



Wordszvorth's Prefaces and Essays in 

Poetry. Edited by A. J. George, editor of The Prelude, Selections from 
Wordsworth, Burke's American Speeches, etc. Cloth. 133 pages. Introduc- 
tion price, 50 cents. Price by mail, 55 cents. 

THE publication in 1798 of the first edition of Lyrical Ballads — a 
joint volume by Wordsworth and Coleridge — marked an era in 
the development of English poetry. In the advertisement to that 
volume we have the following: " The majority of the following poems 
are to be considered as experiments. They were written chiefly with 
a view to ascertain how far the language of conversation in the middle 
and lower classes of society is adapted to the purposes of poetic 
phrases." Although this edition had no great popularity, yet it 
attracted the attention of the " fit though few," and produced such an 
impression as to warrant an enlarged edition in 1800. In this edition 
appeared that challenge to the critics in the form of an extended Pre- 
face, which Coleridge said was the cause of the hostility which Words- 
worth was made to encounter during half a century. Each successive 
attack of the critics was followed by a new or enlarged preface, and 
the battle was terminated only by the poet's death. Thus in these 
various essays we have the evolution of that poetic creed which has 
made Wordsworth rank among the great critics of the century. Mr. 
George has brought together these essays and illustrated them by allu- 
sion to the principles of criticism which have prevailed from Aristotle 
to Matthew Arnold. 



J. G. Scliurman, Pres. of Cornell 
Univ.: A very useful piece of work to 
have brought together so much of Words- 
worth's prose writing, and the notes strike 
me as very scholarly. 

The Nation, N. Y. : It is well edited. 
The introduction and notes are serviceable 
and the volume will be found a useful text- 
book. 

Journal of Education, London .• 
This is an excellent edition, and in every 
way good, of the prose writings which it 
is necessary to become acquainted with in 
order to fully comprehend the poet and 
his poetry. 



The Schoolmaster, London : The 
task of editing has been done with taste 
and with a truly appreciative spirit. 

The Critic, A^. Y.: Edited in the 
same judicious manner that we have com- 
mended in his " Selections from Words- 
worth." 

The Christion Union, N. Y.: 
These prefaces and essays hold a very im- 
portant place in the history of EngUsh 
literature. They belong to the original 
documents of English criticism, and it was 
a very happy idea to collect them and pre- 
sent them in a small volume where they 
are readily accessible to students. 



66 ENGLISH. 

Select Speeches of Daniel JVebster, 

Edited with notes by A. J- George. A companion volume to Burke's American 
Speeches, by the same editor. Cloth. 404 pages. Retail price, ^1.50. Spe- 
cial price for class use. 

WEBSTER'S name is unquestionably the greatest in American 
Political Literature ; it is the only one that can stand com- 
parison with Burke's. These selections represent him in the several 
distinct fields in which his genius manifested itself so powerfully, — 
before the Supreme Court, in the Senate, before a jury, on a great 
historic occasion, as a eulogist, and in a national election. 

Hon. E. J. Phelps says of this work : " I do not think the Selection 
could be improved, and the notes make it most interesting and valu- 
able as revealing the incidents of that great life and the circumstances 
that attended those matchless addresses. Webster's fame will increase 
as time goes on and I am sure this collection will be of great service to 
the younger class of men." 



Daily Advertiser, Boston : The 
editor's work has been exceedingly well 
done. The preface is in good taste, the 
selection is judicious, and the notes are 
just sufficient to put the pupil in posses- 
sion of what must be known in order to 
have an understanding of the speeches. 

Review of Reviews, N'. Y. : A 
work that will be highly appreciated by 
teachers. It contains a fitting introduc- 
tion, selections covering the whole range 
of Webster's Oratory, and notes which are 
exactly what are needed to explain the 
circumstances under which the speeches 
were delivered. 



Journal of Education, London: 
It will be found in every respect admir- 
able for school use. It brings together in 
convenient form with full explanatory 
notes, those masterpieces on which Web- 
ster's fame chiefly rests. 

Wisconsin Journal of Educa- 
tion : The most representative orations 
which could have been selected. They 
make up a volume of great value as a text- 
book in American schools. 

The Columbia Literary Month- 
ly : An excellent selection, well arranged. 
The cream of Webster's orations. The 
notes are very carefully made. 



Syllabus of English Literature and His- 
tory {Revised). By A. J. George, Editor of Selections from Wordsworth, The 
Prelude, etc. Paper. 27 pages. Retail price, 20 cent^s. Special price for class 
use. 

THE purpose of this Syllabus is to guide the student in literary and 
historical research, to lead him to study history as revealed in 
literature, and literature as inspired by great historic events. 



ENGLISH. 



67 



Burke s Speeches on the American War, 



and Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol. 
George, A.M. Cloth. 254 pages, 
mail, 70 cents. 



With Introduction and Notes by A. J. 
Introduction price, 60 cents. Price by 



THIS work is edited in the hope that, by furthering the study of the 
greatest political classic in the English language, it may also further 
that spirit which seeks to study history as revealed in literature, and 
literature as inspired by great historical events. In the preparation of 
the notes, the editor has confined himself to the historical setting and 
interpretation of the work. 



Sir Thomas Wyatt and his Poems. 

By William Edward Simonds, Professor of English Literature and Rhetoric, 
Knox College, Galesburg, 111. Cloth. 156 pages. Retail price, 75 cents. 

n[^HE first portion of this book is devoted to biography, and aims, by 
J- use of material recently made available, to penetrate the obscurity 
that has wrapped the poet's life. 

The second division includes an introductory section upon the texts, 
and finally a discussion and interpretation of Wyatt's poems individ- 
ually and in groups. The author of the essay finds a line of order 
and of progress that admits of an arrangement of the poems chrono- 
logically ; and attempts to show that they are much more strongly 
impregnated with the poet's own experience than has commonly been 
supposed. 

This book represents the fruit of considerable work abroad ; it is on 
the line of German methods in literary criticism, and will be found of 
particular interest to the specialist in English Literature. 



Public Opinion, Washington, D. C. : 
It is scholarly in its method, and the re- 
sult of a careful and thorough research 
into the career of a man whose life and 
works are strongly tinged with the roman- 
tic spirit of the time. 

Shake speariana, N. V.: No stu- 
dent of Middle English can afford to 
neglect this work, which strikes us as a 
careful, scholarly, novel, and in every 



way most admirable study of the Eng- 
lish which Shakespeare's predecessors 
wrote. 

The Nation : The work is done in 
the spirit of German scholarship ; and if 
it should lead to a proper editing of the 
text of the poems, it would have its best 
result. That a poet historically so im- 
portant should have been so iong neg- 
lected, is discreditable. 



68 



ENGLISH, 



Introduction to Browning. 



By Hiram Corson, LL.D., Professor of Rhetoric and English Literature in 
Cornell University. Cloth. 348 pages. Retail price, ^1.50. Special price for 
class use. 

THE purpose of this volume is to afford some aid and guidance to 
the study of Robert Browning's Poetry, which, being the most 
complexly subjective of all English poetry, is, for that reason alone, the 
most difficult. And then the poet's favorite art form, the dramatic, or 
rather psychologic, monologue, which is quite original with himself, 
and peculiarly adapted to the constitution of his genius, and to the rev- 
elation of themselves by the several "dramatis personae," presents 
certain structural difficulties, but difficulties which, with an increased 
familiarity, grow less and less. The exposition presented in the Intro- 
duction, of its constitution and skilful management, and the Argu- 
ments given to the several poems included in this volume, will, it is 
hoped, reduce, if not altogether remove, the difficulties of this kind. 
In the same section of the Introduction certain peculiarities of the 
poet's diction, which sometimes give a check to the reader's under- 
standing of a passage, are presented and illustrated. 

The following is the Table of Contents : — 

I. The Spiritual Ebb and Flow exhibited in English Poetry from Chau- 
cer to Tennyson and Browning. II. The Idea of Personality and of Art, 
as an intermediate agency of Personality, as embodied in Browning's 
Poetry. (Read before the Browning Society of London in 1882.) 
III. Browning's Obscurity. IV. Browning's Verse. V. Arguments of 
the Poems. VI. Poems. (Under this head are thirty-three representative 
poems, the Arguments of which are given in the preceding section.) 

We publish a special brocJm?-e contaifting 7nuch that will be of 
interest to students of Browning. It is sent free on application. 



Extract from a letter from 
Rotoert Browning: Let it remain as 
an assurance to younger poets that after 
fifty years woi-k, unattended by any con- 
spicuous recognition, an over-payment may 
be made, i f there is such another munifi- 
cent appreciator as I have been privileged 
to find in Professor Corson ; in which 
case, let them, even if more deserving, be 
»:qually grateful. 



Extract from a letter from Rob- 
ert Bro>vning to Dr. Furnivall, 

founder of the Browning Society of Lo7i- 
don : If your society had produced 
nothing more than Professor Corson's pa- 
per, I should feel abundantly grateful. 

F. A. March, Prof, in Lafayette 
Coll. : An eloquent and acute book. I 
hope it may pay as well in money as it 
must in good name. 



ENGLISH. 



69 



Introduction to Shakespeare. 



By Hiram Corson, LL.D., Professor of Rhetoric and English Literature in 
Cornell University. Cloth. 400 pages. Retail price, ^1.50. Special price for 
class use. 

THIS work indicates to the student some lines of Shakespearean 
thought which will serve to introduce him to the study of the 
Plays as plays. The general introductory chapter is followed by 
chapters on : The Shakespeare-Bacon Controversy, — The Authen- 
ticity of the First Folio, — The Chronology of the Plays, — 
Shakespeare's Verse, — The Latin and Anglo-Saxon Elements of 
Shakespeare's English. The larger portion of the book is devoted 
to commentaries and critical chapters upon Romeo and Juliet, King 
John, Much Ado about Nothing, Hamlet, Macbeth, and Antony and 
Cleopatra. These aim to present the points of view demanded for a 
proper appreciation of Shakespeare's general attitude toward things, 
and his resultant dramatic art, rather than the textual study of the 
plays. The book is also accompanied by examination questions. 

This work is a scholarly and suggestive addition to Shakespeare 
criticism, especially suited, by reason of the author's long experience 
as a teacher, for students' use, and also valuable, by reason of its 
independence of opinion, originality, and learning, to all lovers of 
Shakespeare. 



The Nation : It exemplifies the 
spirit in which Shakespeare should be 
studied, standing squarely againf.t the met- 
aphysical and moralizing perversion, the 
superfine intellectuality, and all the mis- 
conceptions of dramatic art and confusion 
of aesthetic standards which came to us 
from Germany. Altogether, so excellent 
a volume of Shakespeare criticism has not 
been put forth by an American scholar in 
many a day. Teachers and students both 
may profit by it as a model of how to learn 
in this particular subject. 

The Tablet, London : It is delightful 
reading. While purporting to be merely a 
hand-book for students, it proves to be a 
commentary of a very high order. It is in 
handy form and well printed and can be 
heartily recommended to all students of 
the world-poet. 



Prof. T. W. Hunt, Princeton, hi 
Mod. Lang. Notes ; Its two cardinal merits 
are suggestiveness and intensity. It holds 
the reader to the page and makes him 
ponder as he reads. Had we space we 
could collate not a few paragraphs, so 
potent and trenchant as to be worth the 
remembrance of every student of dramatic 
art. The style is stimulating and con- 
firms the principle that literary criticism, 
at its best, is creative and vital. Prof. 
Corson deals with Shakespeare as a 
student should deal with genius. This 
method is catholic, sympathetic and 
psychologic rather than verbal and micro- 
scopic. Less "peeping and botanizing" 
and a more profound iniook and a more 
spacious outlook is what is needed in 
Shakespearian study, and it is a need that 
Professor Corson has done much to meet. 



ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

Hawthorne and Lemmon's American Literature, a manual for high schools 

and academies. $1.25. 

Meiklejohn's History of English Language and Literature. For high schools 

and colleges. A compact and reliable statement of the essentials ; also included is 
Meiklejohn's English Language (see under English Language). 90 cts. 

Meiklejohn's History of English Literature. ii6 pages. Part iv of English 

Literature, above. 45 cts. 

Hodgkins' Studies in English Literature. Gives full lists of aids for laboratory 

method. Scott, Lamb, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley, Keats, Macaulayi 
Dickens, Thackeray, Roljert Browning, Mrs. Browning, Carlyle, George Eliot, Tenny- 
son, Rossetti, Arnold, Ruskin, Irving, Bryant, Hawthorne, Longfellow, Emerson, 
Whittier, Holmes, and Lowell. A separate pamphlet on each author. Price 5 cts. each, 
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Scudder's Shelley's Prometheus Unbound. With introduction and copious 

notes. 70 cts. 

George's Wordsworth's Prelude. Annotated for high school and college. Never 
before published alone. Si. 25. 

George's Selections from Wordsworth. i68 poems chosen with a view to illustrate 

the growth of the poet's mind and art. I1.50. 

George's Wordsworth's Prefaces and Essays on Poetry. Contains the best of 

Wordsworth's prose. 60 cts. 
George's Webster's Speeches. Nine select speeches with notes. ^1.50. 

George's Burke's American Orations. Cloth. 65 cts. 

George's Syllabus of English Literature and History. Shows in parallel 

columns, the progress of History and Literature. 20 cts. 

Corson's Introduction to Browning. A guide to the study of Browning's Poetry. 
Also has 33 poems with notes. ^1.50. 

Corson's Introduction to the Study of Shakespeare, a critical study of 

Shakespeare's art, with examination questions. $1.50. 

Corson's Introduction to the Study of Milton, in press. 
Corson's Introduction to the Study of Chaucer, in press. 

Cook's Judith. The Old English epic poem, with introduction, translation, glossary and 
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Cook's The Bible and English Prose Style. Approaches the study of the BiWa 

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Simonds' Sir Thomas Wyatt and his Poems. i68 pages. With biography, and 

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Hall's Beowulf. A metrical translation. #1.00. Students' edition. 35 cts. 

Norton's Heart of Oak Books. A series of five volumes giving selections from the 
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See also our list 0/ books for the study of tJie English Language. 



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